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arc kept in the parish of Fulham; in one of these a magistrate's
order was obtained in the year 1879, prohibiting pigs from being
kept on the premises. In this case the defendant owner gave
notice of appeal, but afterwards withdrew from the case
on the understanding that your Board would take no further
action till after the 1st of June of the present year. The magisterial
orders obtained against all the other cases have been complied
with. The parish of Fulham is therefore now almost
free from this most objectionable nuisance. In the parish of
Hammersmith there arc still many hundreds of swine kept in a
locality totally unfit for the business of pig keeping, and what is
still worse the animals arc kept in a most dirty and revolting
condition. This most objectionable nuisance does not exist
becausc your Board arc unwilling to stop it, or because you do
not recognise the serious consequences of its continuance. Last
year 29 summonses were taken out by your instructions against
the pig-keepers of Latymer Road. Over 40 persons residing in
the immediate neighbourhood of the piggeries promised to give
evidence in support of the prosecution. Strange to say, at the
hearing of the cases nearly all the witnesses, although called for
the prosecution, gave evidence to the effect that no nuisance had
existed. They had previously stated on deposition to your
solicitors that the nuisance was of the worst possible description.
The magistrate was evidently of opinion that the nuisance did
exist. Also that it was perfectly right and justifiable of your
Board to have taken the proceedings, but he pointed out that he
could not grant orders in the face of such evidence as was called
for the prosecution. He suggested that you should take fresh
proceedings on some future occasion, and he made no order as
to costs. The counsel for the defence was not called upon to
plead; he did not ask for costs, but was content to win the case
on the evidence of the prosecution. The result was that each
side paid its own costs. It is greatly to be regretted that this
evil still exists. As I stated to you in my third Quarterly
Report, 1880—"I have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion,
after due and careful consideration, that hundreds of human
lives have been, directly and indirectly, sacrificed through the
keeping of swine in the Latymer Road. During last quarter no
less a number than 47 deaths occurred in that locality. Of these
21 died in the Latymer Road, the remainder in streets closely
adjaccnt to the piggeries; 19 of the total 47 deaths were from
zymotic diseases. The per centage of deaths from zymotic
diseases as compared with the total deaths was 42.6, while the
per centage in the whole district was 26.0. One of the pigkeepers
himself died from chronic diarrhoea during last quarter.